Xenocrates
Deity
Alternative tips for beginners from an experienced player:
1) One often-overlooked source of happiness are pets. If you see a bear or a panther or a lion near your borders just send a worker out to capture it. Each pet gives +1 happy face and, unlike other resources, stack.
Note: This will not work if you see a dinosaur (a rare spawn) this will not work and your worker will be eaten while on the toilet.
2) Pay attention to city locations:
A city built on bananas is inherently unstable and could slip into the sea at any time.
If Uranium spawns near a city you need to evacuate it immediately as the radiation will turn your citizens into glowing green zombies saying brains, brains repeatedly. This may be considered to be an Easter egg by some but it doesnt do your game any good.
Be careful about building early cities in Jungle or Forest, as this terrain is home to trees and bushes and as we all know Bushes can be very dangerous indeed, affecting the intelligence of your entire civilisation. Indeed they are the only way to generate a Dark Age in the game. Once Bushes are set in the only way to shift them is by causing global warming; which turns everything green into beautiful useful desert sand.
A good source of beaver fur near one of your first three cities will boost your birth rate by 25% and give you an early game advantage. This advantage is doubled if you have access to cheap wine but cancelled after researching rubber (if you also have access to the rubber resource).
Never under any circumstances build a city near a river. Sure the commerce bonus looks good, but flood plains arent called that for nothing and sooner or later youll be watching your belongings float away. They do, however, provide a good source of fish and if you are unlucky enough to be forced into building near a river, I advise researching phishing immediately as this leads to unlimited wealth.
3) Technologies:
One technology that is under-estimated in iron working; sending troops out into combat with poorly ironed shirts is a sure morale boost for the enemy. Tip- if you dont research iron working before tumble drying you may find your reputation with other civilisations may take a big hit. Iron working for the WIN.
Liberalism gives your citizens the right of free speech; which is a double edged sword. It leads to the civics of ignored, misunderstood and misquoted. Be wary of this technology.
Researching 'The Internet' gives access to the 'Al Gore' wonder without which all human life would cease to exist. This is especially useful for warmonger strategies as ample evidence can be found on the Internet to justify war against anyone. The early war weariness boost wears off pretty quickly though
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Trifling enables the pedantry civic, which feeds back into philosophy resulting in very little except arguments over which unit is best on CIV forums. Best ignored IMO.
NEVER research Archery if later you intend to research Radio 4; the results are truly game-breaking.
4) On city management. You must remember that happy citizens dont work. They need to be face survival pressures in order to be productive. Limit their food and watch that productivity soar! This is the American way. Unhealthy cities become cash cows when hospitals become available. Each hospital generates obscene revenue, especially if your civilisation is French.
5) Wonders:
The Great Wall of China is one of the must have wonders. It is advisable to build it in any type of game. It gives three advantages:
Generates National pride.
Reduces prison population.
Gives your citizens the ability to play squash anywhere, anytime.
The Eiffel tower also provides one keen advantage:
It can be sold to Americans to generate large amounts of cash.
The Statue of liberty:
Can be given to a foreign civilisation to damage your relationship with another useful if you want to incite a war.
6) On War:
Never MISUNDERESTIMATE your enemies.
7) Pay attention to the tips at the start of the game, for example:
Never fight a land war in Asia Carerra.
I sincerely hope that the above advice is of use to newcomers to the game; please feel free to add/improve.
1) One often-overlooked source of happiness are pets. If you see a bear or a panther or a lion near your borders just send a worker out to capture it. Each pet gives +1 happy face and, unlike other resources, stack.
Note: This will not work if you see a dinosaur (a rare spawn) this will not work and your worker will be eaten while on the toilet.
2) Pay attention to city locations:





3) Technologies:




NEVER research Archery if later you intend to research Radio 4; the results are truly game-breaking.
4) On city management. You must remember that happy citizens dont work. They need to be face survival pressures in order to be productive. Limit their food and watch that productivity soar! This is the American way. Unhealthy cities become cash cows when hospitals become available. Each hospital generates obscene revenue, especially if your civilisation is French.
5) Wonders:
The Great Wall of China is one of the must have wonders. It is advisable to build it in any type of game. It gives three advantages:
Generates National pride.
Reduces prison population.
Gives your citizens the ability to play squash anywhere, anytime.
The Eiffel tower also provides one keen advantage:
It can be sold to Americans to generate large amounts of cash.
The Statue of liberty:
Can be given to a foreign civilisation to damage your relationship with another useful if you want to incite a war.
6) On War:
Never MISUNDERESTIMATE your enemies.
7) Pay attention to the tips at the start of the game, for example:

I sincerely hope that the above advice is of use to newcomers to the game; please feel free to add/improve.